


What Fades and What Stays

by OrangeBlossoms



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/F, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21653158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangeBlossoms/pseuds/OrangeBlossoms
Summary: Kagero and Orochi spend an evening catching up over drinks.
Relationships: Kagero/Orochi (Fire Emblem)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 18





	What Fades and What Stays

**Author's Note:**

> This was for an exchange with someone on Twitter! Thank you for a fun prompt!

It’s not exactly a date, but she’s at a point where she doesn’t mind swimming in this in between. Perhaps it’s because so many things in the rest of their lives are uncertain, so this small pocket of something good stands out no matter how fuzzy the edges have been. And it’s not because she’s inebriated. She hasn’t had all _that_ much. Not yet, anyway. 

They’re back in her rooms, settled on the floor in front of a low table, cups and a serving bottle lined up on a lacquer tray. It makes for a neat and tidy display now, but the energy of the night suggests she’ll have some clean up to do in the morning. It’s been long enough since they last met up and Kagero shows no signs of wanting to cut the gathering short. They had begun the evening across from each other, but she’s gravitated closer after some initial chatter. She’s always preferred contact when it came to Kagero and Kagero never seems to mind.

The last time they’d scraped together a couple free hours to just be Kagero and Orochi again, Kagero had helped her home, Orochi’s arm slung loosely around her neck. When they parted, she giggled with a tender helplessness into Kagero’s fingers as she pressed her lips to them. As if she were a visitor from the Nohrian court and not an off-duty retainer trying to get her friend to stay a little later. Act a touch reckless. Burn the candle at both ends. 

It had seemed like an entertaining plan at the time, the two of them still floating amidst a cloud of reminiscences. In reality, they have too many responsibilities to waste away nights like they did when they were teenagers. Even when Kagero used to have morning training, she would sit quietly and let Orochi tell a few frivolous fortunes about things that hardly mattered in exchange for a shoulder to lean on and a sympathetic ear. 

Times have changed...

...but not always for the worse. 

The way Kagero said her name when they last parted left a pleasant pressure in her chest as she readied herself for sleep. She still remembers the smoky warmth and on occasion she considers stoking the fire into something bolder, something neither of them would forget. 

When they drink together, Kagero never gets too sloppy as a rule. But small truths emerge and Orochi covets every last one of them. Every insignificant gripe and admission, each reminiscence. All that is new and every story she’s heard time and again. Orochi’s always eager to share several of her own _remember whens_ and watches for the knowing smiles that follow. A diviner by definition is a skilled storyteller, after all. Perhaps she’s waiting for the right story to unfold in the way she wants it to, each step closer serves as an underpinning of the narrative she’ll one day disclose. A revelation worth retelling some future night over drinks and laughter. 

Tonight, she’s finagled a bottle of saké from one of the senior cooks who fancies himself a sommelier. He’s a planner to a fault and under certain circumstances, goods are worth more than coin in exchange for her divinations. Kagero confirms this when she refills their cups.

“What did you do to get ahold of this?”

Her tone is smooth and unbroken except for a hint of appreciation that sneaks past her lips even as she teases her. For asking Orochi to reveal her tricks is tantamount to requesting a kunoichi to part with her secrets. That is how she prefers to play it off and so she has a ready reply that surely Kagero expects.

“That’s for me to know and you to never find out, my dear. Just enjoy it and let me worry about any acquisitions of a dubious nature.” 

She cackles at her own joke, surely loud enough for her neighbor’s neighbors to hear. Kagero remains even-keeled as Orochi slumps against her in her laughter. Pushing better judgment to the side as always, she prods Kagero in the ribs with a finger, her beads clacking softly as she moves. 

“These days it’s a momentous occasion when you grace me with your presence, you know.” It sounds too lonely and certainly too earnest, so she gulps back her drink as flimsy cover. Reina is company of a sort even if Orochi cannot relate to how she longs for battle in ways that routine patrols simply cannot satisfy. Even when it was the four of them, that disquieting suspicion that the arrangement was too good not to be temporary lurked in the periphery. That proved itself to be more true than she’s willing to dwell on, so she watches her companion instead. 

Kagero smiles subtly just as much with her eye as she does with her mouth, her cup lifted in a silent toast. 

“I’ve missed you, too.” 

Their glasses clink and they both sip, taking a moment to savor the drink. She sets her cup down with a satisfied sigh. The exercise is enough to settle her and to release the tension she didn’t realize she had been holding in her shoulders and her hands. 

“You always know what to say, don’t you?” 

“Hmm.”

“No really! Ever since we were little.” 

“If I recall correctly, you did most of the talking.”

She shoves Kagero lightly with a huff, her form swaying obediently even if she could maintain her stance with little effort.

“Oh, just take the compliment already. Hmph, it’s getting warm in here. I’ll open a window.”

Springing up from her seat, she allows a restless energy to flow through her once again as she skips over belongings and sidles up to a screen to welcome in the night air. The opening cuts an inviting picture of the shadows. A lone branch flush with sprouting leaves divides the image in half. 

“Much better, yes?” 

“You’re quite the exceptional hostess.”

She wags a finger in mock indignation at her guest who no doubt observes the gesture even as she lifts her cup for a long sip, mouth obscured and eyes seemingly closed.

“Always with the teasing tonight! What am I to do with you? Has accompanying Lord Ryoma to Nohr transformed you into a courtier?”

Kagero breathes a noncommittal sound that she can’t read, so she refills their drinks instead with a dramatic flourish and a bow of her head.

“Your humble servant.”

With Kagero, her voice never quite has her customary edge, as if daring others to test the limits of her smile. Fools she’ll (temporarily) suffer gladly and she’ll even play the part of one if it gets her what she wants, but Kagero she trusts through good fortune and bad. They’ve dealt with far too much of the latter, which is why it’s so pleasant to have her to herself with no expectations. Like old times. Maybe she’ll sit on those other feelings awhile longer, let that pleasant ache marinate. 

Perhaps she’ll even travel with their retinue next time, bring a bit of garish color to the dour trappings of the Nohrian court. Their darkness has always loomed heavy in an oppressive way—manufactured, unnatural… cold. Nothing to delight and enchant. No mystery to the uncertainty, only dread.

Lately, however, murmurs of Nohr going through its own transformation have surfaced, often laced with skepticism. Maybe she should investigate for herself. A part of her is unshakably certain that she will always serve the royal family, but lately she has been left up to her own devices, finding work when she is needed. This glimmer of an idea does not seem so remote a possibility.

“I’m sure you’ve heard, but both parties deemed the meeting a success,” Kagero says, vaulting gracefully from one topic to the next, trusting Orochi to trace her path even past a break. “There will be another visit at the start of the Waterless Month. Merchants have begun to traverse the overland roads despite stray Faceless.”

The details of current events fill in as Kagero speaks, reorienting them both in the changing landscape. She shares only that which could be considered common knowledge, but is a far more reliable source than some of the scraps of information that are bandied about in court. In return, Orochi tells her of the most blatant fabrications and gossip she has sniffed out during some of her more directionless days in the palace. Of lovers scorned and deceptions revealed and misunderstandings that hold a kernel of truth. 

A candle sputters, further welcoming in the glow of the late spring moon. The fabric of Kagero’s scarf is clumsily folded over her shoulder as a makeshift pillow.

“You should just stay the night.” It’s a daring request no matter how sleepily delivered, the drink lulling her into a hazy carelessness. “Let Saizo take the morning shift.” 

Kagero only chuckles in response to the petulant addition, the sound felt as much as heard from her seat nestled against her side. What’s past is past and in truth it’s not a concern, but something about her can’t help but needle. 

“There’s no need to worry about that,” Kagero promises, her answer seemingly addressing both old flame and professional responsibilities alike. 

Lids heavy, she doesn’t stop herself from drifting and it is only when Kagero nudges her gently that she musters the energy to shuffle to a bedroll Kagero must have laid out. Relying on memory borne from routine, she lets her hair down, consciousness flickering like the lone candle her guest extinguishes shortly after. 

“Sleep well, Orochi. Until tomorrow.”

As her awareness fades into slumber, she holds that pledge close, reassured by the other presence that remains.


End file.
